"Even though the construction of the future and its completion for all times is not our task, what we have to accomplish at this time is all the more clear: *relentless criticism of all existing conditions*, relentless in the sense that the criticism is not afraid of its findings and just as little afraid of the conflict with the powers that be."

Books: Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild, Endless War: Hidden Functions of the "war on terror" by David Keen, Capital Vol. 1, Tin Drum by Günter Grass, What is Islam? by Shahab Ahmed, Desiring Arabs by Joseph Massad, Spies, Soldiers and Statesmen by Hazem Kandil, La Condition Humaine by André Malraux, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Imagined Community by Benedict Anderson, Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, The Richness of Life by Stephen Jay Gould, Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz, The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell, Noli me Tangere by José Rizal, Age of Extremes by Eric Hobsbawm, ذهنية التحريم لصادق جلال العظم, Karl Marx by Francis Wheen, وليمة لأعشاب البحر لحيدر حيدر, Candide by Voltaire, النزعات المادية في الفلسفة العربية الإسلامية لحسين مروة, Listen Little Man by Wilhelm Reich ..

Sunday, July 09, 2017

I have just read a review of Gareth Stedman Jones' book Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion. Then I've found a good comment.Timothy Shenk quotes Gareth Stedman Jones as saying that ‘the left ought to give up the idea that there’s some other system waiting in the wings instead of capitalism’ and that ‘there’s going to be some end of history where there’s some magical transformative solution and a completely different system takes over’ (LRB, 29 June). I will shortly be 68 years old and have been a Marxist all my adult life, yet I have never heard anyone on the left express these ideas. Stedman Jones is using an old ploy: attribute to the target of your criticism a viewpoint that they don’t actually hold, then proceed to knock it down." — John CunninghamThe review itself requires a subscription (institution or university one).

About Me

“The Middle East has often been represented as an area in the world where one cannot speak about classes and where class analysis is least relevant…A survey of leading historical studies of the Middle East reveals a surprising reliance upon the class approach. Such prominent Orientalists and Islamic historians as Hamilton A.R. Gibb, W. Montgomery Watt, Bernard Lewis, Gustav E. von Grunbaum, S.D. Goitein, Roger Le Tourneau, Reuben Levy, and Jacques Berque have sporadically analysed the Middle East in terms of class. Yet, none of these scholars have endeavored (1) to examine systematically the meaning and relevance of this concept within the Islamic setting; and (2) to define rigorously and reshape the concept according to the area under consideration and the problems at issue.”(James A. Bill)